You wouldn’t think Amar’e Stoudemire’s 2012-13 season debut in Tuesday night’s home loss to Portland would constitute enough of a sample size to determine just how doomed the Knicks might be with Stat and Carmelo Anthony simultaneously active, much as it shouldn’t be the final word on the former’s defensive deficiencies. After all, he’s got an entire body of work to draw from! Perhaps with that in mind Stoudemire took pains to point out to anyone paying attention at Wednesday’s practice that Mike Woodson IS NOT MIKE D’ANTONI (who is to blame for almost everything wrong with the world). From the NY Daily News’ Mitch Lawrence :
“I think having a defensive coach for the first time in my career is going to help,” Stoudemire said after practice in Greenburgh. “I’ve never been taught defense in my whole career. So to now have a coach who actually teaches defense and teaches strategies and knows positioning and posture and how to guard different plays, it’s going to be helpful.”
Coming off knee surgery that prevented him from playing the first 31 games, Stoudemire vowed to improve his defense in his new bench role.|
“I’m taking it as a challenge,” he said. “I’m going to accept the challenge. And I’m going to try to improve as a player.”